#justiceOPportunity Thursday: 05.21.20

Sr. Judy Lu McDonnell, OPMs. Lyn Kirkconnell

It’s #justiceOPportunity Thursday, and we hope you will join us in taking the Pledge to Protect Others. Pax Christi USA has initiated the “Pledge to Protect Others” as a thoughtful, compassionate response for this next phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pledge helps people to pause and think about how they will act as communities begin to reopen—what that means for themselves and the larger community. Secondly, it functions as an act of solidarity with others, articulating how we will demonstrate concern for how our actions affect others, how we are taking personal responsibility to protect friends and strangers, and how we are prioritizing the common good.

The pledge asserts something really basic — that we’re all human beings, that we care about each other, that we want to be thoughtful and considerate of our actions and how they impact other people during this crisis. It is an affirmation that together we stand against other narratives that seek to blame and castigate others, traffic in racism, threaten violence, foment fear, and only consider self-interest.